A hybrid prairie grouse, showing both the pinnae feathers of a male prairie chicken and the purple air sacs and pointed tail of a male sharp-tailed grouse. Contributed / Jesse Kolar, North Dakota ...

Hunters can help researchers in a study looking at whether hybridization between prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse is influencing prairie chicken populations. The long-term effects of hybrid… ...

Seven of the eight prairie grouse observed at one mating grounds site this spring were hybrids, with traits of both prairie chickens and more dominant sharp-tailed grouse. Jun 27, 2021 By Brad Dokken ...

We opened that because our prairie chickens in that area, which we were protecting before, have largely dwindled to where we’re not as concerned about those numbers,” said Kolar.

GILLETTE, Wyo. | After 13 years of rising in the wee hours of the morning each spring to monitor sage grouse leks in northeast Wyoming, Erika Peckham was startled by ...

Like sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens, sage grouse gather each spring at the same place, called a lek or strutting ground.

Sharp-tailed grouse management began in northern Wisconsin during the late 1940s in response to concerns of habitat loss. Today, suitable habitat exists only in relatively small, isolated patches.

The DNR monitors sharp-tailed grouse via annual counts on dancing grounds, or leks. Sharptails, similar to their close relative the greater prairie chicken, gather to mate on specific sites.

A spring 2023 survey of dancing grounds found 13% more male sharp-tailed grouse in Wisconsin than last year, including 19% more on DNR properties.

“Nest parasitism of prairie grouse nests by pheasants is not uncommon — it happens pretty much everywhere prairie-chickens and sharp-tails overlap pheasants,” McNew wrote in an email.